flytier

He was also an obsessional flytier — his bible was a book by a long-ago Victorian devotee of the sport, a guide to creating elaborate and beautiful salmon fishing lures with the feathers of rare and exotic birds.

He adds, “I know of several other museums that suffered thefts of specimens by another flytier whose identity has never been revealed and who never faced justice.”

He was also a champion salmon flytier.

They didn’t realize that the 20-year-old, enrolled as a flautist at the Royal Academy of Music, was also a master salmon flytier, after a meteoric ascent within the cultish community.